


The Fairy in the Garden

by Carerra_os



Series: Harringrove Tumblr Stories [35]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Billy Hargrove has a Green Thumb, Injury, M/M, Werewolf Billy Hargrove, fairy steve harrington
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25940431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carerra_os/pseuds/Carerra_os
Summary: Billy finds an unexpected visitor in his garden.-It takes both of his hands to get the fairy out from under the flowers, sharp little teeth and nails fighting him the whole way. "Easy, easy you little shit." Billy hisses at a particularly vicious and well placed bite. Billy rips the bandanna from his pocket and bundles the little thing up in it, leaving only their head out. "Can you talk?
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Series: Harringrove Tumblr Stories [35]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673560
Comments: 12
Kudos: 189





	The Fairy in the Garden

**Author's Note:**

> #73 “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”

**The Fairy in the Garden**

Billy usually takes care of his garden in the morning before work, before the sun goes high in the sky bleeding life into everything. This morning however things had not gone to plan, his boss had called him twenty minutes before his alarm went off with an emergency. So Billy had not gotten to his garden this morning, which is why as the sun is setting he is making his way into his fairly good sized backyard to start tending his flowers and the few vegetables he is growing, check on the seedlings he is trying to grow.

Billy smells them before he sees them, nose keen even when the full moon is not out, like honey and sugar dripped all around his little garden, too strong to just be in passing. Billy hunts around his garden stopping to fuss over a broken peony, trimming the broken flower and tucking it into his pocket. There is a rustle from the left and Billy heads toward the seedlings he planted last weekend, displeased with the rough treatment of one of his babies and hoping he will not find more damage. 

Billy tracks it to the edge of the bed of what were seedling just last night, that scent going thick and cloying even under the full bloom of fresh gardenias. Billy scents the air again checking, checking for magic and scenting none he drops down to his knees, soil shifting under his weight as he moves down lower, keeps folding until he can see just barely between the thick earth and the bush of the plant above it.

There is a little mop of brown hair and a small pale near iridescent body curled close to one of the thick stocky stems. Billy is pretty sure the wee thing is not wearing any clothes, little wings wrapped in tight around them as they shake. Billy feels his earlier annoyance drain out of him, that cloying scent thick, he must be smelling fear, he has never been close enough to any fairy to get a scent off of one before.

**"Is there a reason you're naked in my bed?"** Billy tries for light, keeps his tone soft but they do not respond and Billy is not really sure what to do. The sun is setting quickly, dipping below the tree line just outside his fence, there will not be any light left in a few minutes and Billy knows there are things around here that will eat something as small as them. So Billy reaches in and hopes he does not get attacked for the trouble.

It takes both of his hands to get the fairy out from under the flowers, sharp little teeth and nails fighting him the whole way. "Easy, easy you little shit." Billy hisses at a particularly vicious and well placed bite. Billy rips the bandanna from his pocket and bundles the little thing up in it, leaving only their head out. "Can you talk?" 

Brown doe like eyes glare up at him, and Billy is pretty sure that anger is a front, they have only been shaking harder since Billy got his hands on them. "I'm taking you inside. It's not safe in the garden at night." Billy huffs a great sigh, his neighbor’s giant tabby is already watching his new guest with interest.

Billy spares his babies a last glance, he will have to give them extra care in the morning. "Are you going to behave when I put you down? Billy asks, he knows that most fairies can talk, but that does not mean they understand English, Billy tries in Spanish the only other language he ever learned and they just look lost.

"Just try not to break everything. I want to get cleaned up." Billy sets them down on his little kitchen table, a big leafy fern in the middle they can hide in if they still feel the need, Billy is pretty sure they do. Billy does not unwrap them, will let them struggle their way out of the burrito wrap. Hopefully it will wear them down a little and make them a little less hostile, works like a charm on Max's pups when they are throwing tantrums.

Billy washes up and changes into a pair of sweats, he is about to head back down stairs when he thinks better of it, digging through a bag Max's pups had left for when they come over to play. Billy finds the bag full of doll clothes he is looking for with a triumphant fist bump. He is not sure they will fit but it is better than nothing, he is pretty sure fairies wear some sort of covering normally.

Billy finds the bandana empty, silvery and damp in one spot. Billy frowns touching it, fingers coming up iridescent. "Are you alright, are you hurt?" Billy asks, directing at the fern when he sees the leaves ruffle. Billy sits down, little bag on the table, lowering his chin as he tries to look through the foliage.

“What do you need? I got some doll clothes that might fit you if you want." Billy tries, that over sweet honey scent not as strong as it had been in the garden, not as cloying. He keeps searching the greenery, pretty sure his fern was not quite as dense before. He barely contains a little noise of excitement when that mop of brown hair finally peeks out from the heavy foliage to peer at him wearily.

"What do you need?" Billy asks nothing the doll clothes were unnecessary, they seem to have fashioned some from flower petals in his absences. Billy wonders where they got the flowers from, the only flowering plants he has in the house are all upstairs sitting in the windowsill of his bedroom. Then he remembers the fully bloomed gardenias in the garden that had been seedlings the night before. 

"I'm hungry." They finally say with hesitation, fingers clutched in a leaf and Billy is a little mesmerized as he watches the plant grow around them. Curling and enveloping more of the table in its shade hiding more of the fairy from view.

"Uh what do you eat?" Billy cannot recall exactly, something about sweet things, sugar maybe he has that, he does not do a lot of sweets though.

They chew on their lip teeth looking flat and harmless, but the flesh between Billy's thumb and index finger know otherwise. "Do you have any honeycomb? I like honeycomb." They say coming out a little further, fingers leaving the leaf and the plant stops twisting and growing around them. They still have that weary look but there is a little hopeful hunger there and not for the first time Billy wonders what led them to his flower bed.

"Yeah, yeah I do." Billy says standing and a little disappointed as they scurry further back into the plant. Billy grabs a saucer and the jar full of honey and comb he got at the little local farmers market over the weekend, had traded Nancy a bushel of mullein and lemon balm for it.

Billy gets a knife and warms it up, cutting off a piece of the honeycomb bigger than he thinks they will eat but he is not sure. He adds a good helping of honey to the saucer before bringing it over and setting it on the table well away from the fern, he wants to get a good look at them if he can.

"Anything else, something to drink?" Billy asks, already trying to figure out what sort of container would be small enough for them to drink from.

"Do you have milk and sugar?" They ask a little less hesitant this time, big eyes staring up at Billy from the foliage still. Billy just nods, and pulls milk and sugar out hunting through his junk drawer for something that will be small enough for them to drink from. He finds an old medicine topper, the little measurements pressed into the side from when Max's pups had still been young and more human than wolf, when the two of them had gotten the flu and Billy had watched them while she worked a night shift.

Billy gives the thing a thorough cleaning before pouring some milk in it and setting it and a little sugar bowl next to the saucer full of honey and comb, still untouched. Billy turns his back to the table and puts together his own meal, mostly just making use of the leftovers he got at Max's place a few days ago, if he does not eat it tonight it will spoil.

Billy grabs his warm plate from the microwave and turns back toward the table happy to see the fairy out from their hiding spot making their way cautiously across the table. They keep shooting Billy weary looks but huger must win out because as soon as they make it to the food Billy set out for them he is ignored. Billy takes a seat and watches as they tear into the honeycomb dripping honey down their face and hands. Billy edges a napkin close, before tucking into his own food.

Billy laughs around a mouthful of roast as sticky hands dump sugar into the milk using the little sugar spoon to stir it. That earns him another weary look but they still seem more relaxed now as they tip the little container and drink, before going back to tearing through the honeycomb. Billy eats and keeps looking, notes the little dark moles that speckle them, the iridescent wings folded in tight to their back.

"You got a name?" Billy asks, popping a carrot into his mouth, they have finished their food and are eyeing the radishes on Billy's plate. Billy is inclined to give them up but he is waiting to see if they will ask.

"Can I have some of those if I tell you?" They ask edging closer and Billy moves the plate toward them.

"You can have some either way, my name is Billy.” Billy offers, and he knows you do not tell certain fay your name but he feels inclined, wants them to know. He does not feel any weird magic when he gives his name over at least.

"Steve, don't really like it though." They say as they settle in front of the plate folding their legs under them and picking up the half radish closest and biting into it. 

"What do you prefer?" Billy watches as they relax, going contemplative wings starting to loosen and spread out a little.

"I dunno, no one has called me anything in a long time." They shrug before their scent goes dark, like funeral lilies and Billy's stomach turns with it. "It was just me and my tree." Turns more when he sees the lower edge of Steve's wing torn and jagged, the silvery liquid in the bandana just the same as the blood crusted around the edge of the wound.

"You're hurt tinker bell." Billy says fingers itching to reach out and check over the injury.

"Tinker bell?" Steve asks head cocked before their eyes turn to their wing with a little shrug. "It'll heal by morning, they didn't get too much."

"The fairy from Peter Pan, never seen it?" Steve shakes their head in the negative moving on to another turnip, far bigger appetite than Billy would expect from someone no bigger than his hand. "Who's they?" Billy asks usually he would not, is a big fan of letting people sort out their own problems unless they are pack but the wolf in him is agitated at the notion of someone hurting Steve.

Steve eyes him for a long time, just chewing and chewing as he considers him, scent still choking like funeral lilies. "The hunters who burned my tree." Billy had a guess, even though hunting supernaturals is banned, a lot of humans still do it. Billy has had his fair share of run-ins with those who fancy themselves _werewolf hunters_. It is a gross lot, most of them into hurting those that are not like themselves, others convinced the supernatural are abominations, and others still just looking to make a buck off of what is different.

"Where are they?" Billy asks, more demands, as the wolf bleeds through eyes going red, voice more animal than human.

Steve gives him a curious look scent going softer relaxing with the show of aggression instead of going toward fear like most do. "Don't know, not here, flew as long as I could before my wings gave out and I ended up in your garden." They offer finishing off the last radish before going to finish their milk. 

Billy grabs up his plate and the saucer, glad to see Steve at ease and not hiding back under the table fern, he does not question the lack of clothes. The hunters who caught them probably thought it would keep them from running away. He pushes his anger away, there is nothing he can do about those hunters. He does not even know where they are. Billy grabs the little medicine cap from them when they are done and cleans it too, catching the little yawn coming out of Steve. "You tired?"

"I could sleep." They say looking at Billy expectantly. Billy huffs a little laugh and drops his hand to the table in offer, pleased when Steve does not hesitate just climbs onto it letting Billy lift them. Billy would leave them down here to sleep, but he wants to keep an eye on them, keep them safe and his neighbor’s tabby has gotten in before.

Billy sets Steve on his bed and clears a little space on the nightstand for a pillow and an old baby blanket Max's pups always leave here. "I'll leave in the morning when the sun rises, my wing will be healed by then." Steve says resolutely small hands balled into fists and Billy is a little disappointed at the idea of them not being here longer.

"You can stay longer if you like." Billy says shifting Steve from the bed to the night stand. Steve just hums scent going warm and climbs onto the pillow, pressing at it and rolling around, twisting the old blanket around them. Billy flips the light off before pulling the blankets back, Steve's skin practically glowing in the moonlight coming in from the open blinds of the window, as Billy settles into bed. "Good night tinker bell."

Billy wakes later than normal, he did not set an alarm the night before, he did not think to and did not have to, today is his day off. He is a little disappointed when he looks over to find his nightstand missing Steve, blanket and pillow a haphazard mess. There is noise coming from the garden and Billy hears a cat yowl and he knows, just knows that silly fat tabby has gone after another rabbit that has snuck in. Billy is quick to dress, and stumbles down stairs pulling his boots on before throwing the door open preparing to yell.

There is no rabbit, only Steve sitting on the back of that tabby looking pleased with himself. Aforementioned tabby looking confused and annoyed until little hands start scratching at her ears and she goes sliding down to her belly, legs all splayed out as she purrs. "Do you know you drool in your sleep?" Steve asks grinning up at Billy when they see him standing in the doorway. Billy just tips his head back and laughs, glad Steve decided to stay a little longer.

**-End**

**Author's Note:**

> https://ghostofjellyfishforgotten.tumblr.com/


End file.
